Following his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, Donald Trump has put forth another controversial solution to stop the spread of radical extremism - shutting down the internet.
Speaking at a campaign event in South Carolina on Monday night, the Republican presidential frontrunner said that the internet has become a recruiting tool for terrorist groups like ISIS and urged Bill Gates and other big players in the tech world to shut it down.
"We have kids that are watching the Internet, and they want to be masterminds. And then you wonder why we lose all these kids, they want to be masterminds; they're young, they're impressionable, they want to join ISIS." Said Trump. (Via The Daily Dot)
"We're losing a lot of people because of the Internet, and we have to do something." He continued.
"We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way. Somebody will say, 'Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people."
Like his proposed Muslim ban, Trump's internet remarks have been criticized from numerous corners of the web.
Daniel Calingaert, a vice president at the human rights group Freedom House, told The Daily Beast:
"What he is calling for is what authoritarian governments like China and Iran and Saudi Arabia do. It is not feasible. Even those governments don't rely on tech alone to close off the Internet. They abuse laws to pressure ISPs, web hosts, and individuals to take down websites and comments."
CNN says that the plan would be an 'impossible task'.
"There are so many players with so much redundancy built into the system, that the Internet is not just something that can be turned off with a wave of a magic wand." says author David Goldman.
